Tilted Land Ethics

Beginning of article

THE political struggle over developing natural resources for short-term economic gain versus conservation for future generations has a long, lively, and sometimes bitter history. This is particularly true in the American West, where the tradition of rugged individualism is strong but where much of the landscape is managed in trust for the public by federal agencies.

In recent years, legislative compromises have been reached to provide some balance between environmental protection and economic development and also to avoid the manipulation and sometimes intimidation of professional land managers by interest groups. But the weakness of those land-use laws - and, more …